When it comes time for high school graduation, a lot of students wonder what career they ought to work towards. With either college or a jump into full-time employment on the horizon for all of them, there’s a real need for a little guidance. With that in mind, here’s a suggestion: become a lawyer.

That isn’t advice for everyone. Not everyone is cut out to be a lawyer. It’s hard work, and it’s expensive upfront. It also takes a certain kind of mind. For those who have the right skills, though, there are few better careers.

It is important to point all this out now for the simple reason that a career in law has lost some of its prestige of late. The cost of attending college even for just four years can make many potentially successful future lawyers turn away into careers that are easier and cheaper to get. Of course, there are also many different negative stereotypes about lawyers to discourage even those who might otherwise be willing to pay for the schooling and take the time and effort to get the degrees and pass the bar.

This second point is somewhat odd. Other careers that require so much work are usually viewed as prestigious and end up highly lauded. Doctors on television are heroes (as they should be), and scientists or professors are seen as great learned individuals. Lawyers, on the other hand, are ambulance chasers. They are unscrupulous and avaricious. Often, they are fools, and not just fools, but cocky fools.

This, assuredly, is not the case in real life. Many lawyers dedicate themselves to helping others just as doctors do. Simply consider the needs of those who find themselves being taken advantage of after a motor vehicle accident. If a lawyer weren’t available for such people, the consequences could be dire. Such people might miss out on needed treatment or go needlessly into debts they should not have. A lawyer, in that case, is a sort of hero.

Lawyers are also often quite learned, as learned as professors or scientists in their way, and in their sphere, wise and deserving of similar appreciation.

Beyond these positive social and personal qualities, it is worth pointing out that, yes, lawyers still do on average make a very good income. Enough income, in fact, that the costs of those college degrees are more than paid for in the medium term.

With all these points in mind, those high school graduates mulling over a entering the job market, entering college, or looking for something more, ought to consider the law as a very worthy option for their time and money.

It’s an ancient, honorable, and useful profession, one that can help others and bring in a lot of money. It is important not to be swayed by the impression given off by television shows or general societal disapprobation. Law is as fine a career as there is out there, and if a student has the skills and the willingness, there is no finer career to have.